


Berkano

by penlex



Series: little cuts [1]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Thor (Movies)
Genre: Fluff, Gen, Genderfluid Character, Genderfluid Loki (Marvel), Platonic Relationships, Sibling Rivalry, Siblings, Teasing, pronoun changes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-17
Updated: 2018-09-17
Packaged: 2019-07-07 06:30:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,501
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15902754
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/penlex/pseuds/penlex
Summary: Thor is very upset that only women can be Valkyrior. It doesn't really bother Loki.





	Berkano

**Author's Note:**

> Loki is 312 years old in this, or in human years: 5. I have Thor as 125, or the human relative equivalent of 2, years older than him (437, or 7). These numbers are based on the average life of 5,000 years given by Loki in The Dark World divided by an 80 year human average. No, it doesn't make any sense at all that Asgardian years and Earth years would be the same amount of time, but I'm functioning within someone else's worldbuilding here.

Loki and Thor have been playing Valkyrie with each other for nearly a whole hundred years, which is a very large amount of their lives so far, and it happens to be one of their most favorite games. They always dress up and do each others' hair in braids, even though neither of them is very good at that yet and they are always messy and fall out quickly. When Thor has the patience, they will even paint their faces with the makeup styles that their eldest tutor had described to them in her stories of the great band of warriors. They gallop around like they are astride horses, and then they make the furthest leaps they can as if their steeds have taken flight, and they play spar with their wooden swords and do battle with imaginary foes - always victorious, of course. The Valkyrior are all gone now, but Thor insists that the two of them together can begin the group anew. Loki has no reason to doubt his word.

In between his great battle pursuits with Thor, Loki has already begun studying magic. Most seidr wielders don't start to study until they are at least five centuries old, and Loki isn't even four yet. Mother says he has a _natural gift_ , and Father agrees. Loki can change his skin to match almost any color now. At first he had to be looking at something of his desired shade, but now he can do it right with just a thought. Once he had perfected it, Loki had asked Mother if it was possible for him to change the shape of his body too, and she had said yes but that it was much more difficult and even with his talent she wouldn't expect him to do that for many more years. But Loki, just like Thor, takes nearly anything as a challenge.

Loki has been practicing this particular change for a long time, though he knows it probably feels longer than it is to him because he is so little still. He doesn't think it's as hard as Mother said, or maybe it's just easier for Loki because he can feel the shape he means so strongly in his soul sometimes. Plus, it's not really that different, even if everyone says so. Maybe if Loki was older it would be harder, but at this age there is hardly any difference in the shape of boys and the shape of girls. Not _really_.

When Loki feels the shape of a girl in his soul, he will change himself into a girl in his mind first. That makes it easier. Then Loki focuses really hard on it like she does when she wants to change the color of her skin. Sometimes when there is a feeling of the change trying to happen, Loki will be elated that she has made progress. But sometimes when she feels it not quite work, Loki will be filled with a sadness so big it makes her heavy and she can't get out of bed all day long. She never felt that way back when she couldn't change to a certain color, but she figures that's just because none of those came from inside her.

The point being that Loki learning how to change into a girl body didn't have anything to do with Thor. For the record.

Thor is the first of the two of them to learn that the Valkyrior were all women. He comes bursting into their bedroom, in his rush and usual carelessness banging his sword in the doorway at both ends. He has interrupted Loki's magic practice. She is so so close to making her body change to match her changeable self. She was definitely gonna do it this time, she just knows it. But now her concentration is broken and she'll have to start all over later.

"I bear a terrible discovery, brother!" Thor announces. Loki's feelings are kind of hurt that Thor has never yet noticed when she's herself. She hasn't any idea how he _could_ , but still she'd rather he would. No matter, soon she will be able to show him.

"What is it?" Loki asks, feigning interest. She is also very young to be so skilled in faking, she knows. She must be a natural at that too. When she grows up maybe she will be an actress, when she isn't out winning glorious battles with Thor.

"I was telling Sif - you know Sif, from school?" Of course Loki does not know Sif because Loki doesn't attend regular school yet, still learning only from the royal tutors. But Thor talks about her often, so she knows plenty _of_ her. "Many weeks ago I told her of the great Valkyrie band and of their many daring feats, and I told her of our plan to become the first of the new Valkyrior, and so she said she wanted to be a Valkyrie too, with us, and so I said of course and that together we would triumph against any foe." Thor pauses there for breath, and Loki makes a sassy look at him.

"None of that sounds terrible," she says.

"It isn't!" Thor snaps, and stomps over to where Loki is sitting in the lotus pose (or at least, _almost_ the lotus pose; she'll get her body to do that soon too) at the head of their bed. "I haven't gotten to the terrible part yet, but trust me it's the _worst_!" Loki rolls her eyes. Her brother is so dramatic. Maybe _he_ will be the actor when they grow up. Thor throws himself sideways across the bed next to Loki, facedown.

"Sif went home and told her father, Tyr - you know Tyr, Father's General?" Loki does in fact know Tyr, who is not a General anymore but once was the head of Father's army and retired to be a dad, which is a great source of scorn but Loki has never been able to find the fault with no matter how she tries to understand. Thor's voice is muffled by the covers beneath him, and it takes on a piteous whine as he continues. "And Sif told me that General Tyr told her that the Valkyrior were only women!"

Loki forgets, for a moment, that Thor can't (yet?) tell that she is her sometimes, forgets that he just called her 'brother' because he doesn't know any better, and she also forgets - for just a moment! - that he can't be a her sometimes too. And so she tilts her head in confusion and asks, "What's so bad about that?"

Thor raises himself up and sits cross-legged in front of Loki (it's not the same as the lotus pose and the lotus pose is _better_ , Loki knows because she read it in a book). He puts a very serious look on his face, and a hand on Loki's shoulder.

"Brother," he says gently. Loki wrinkles her nose. "Neither you or I can be a Valkyrie after all."

It's not Loki's fault that she was given that kind of an opening. And it was established, for the record, that she didn't learn how to do it because of Thor.

Loki closes her eyes and focuses in on herself as hard as she can. She was so close before Thor interrupted today she thinks she might maybe just be able to still do it right away now. Plus she has some extra added motivation now too. Usually she doesn't have any deadline except that she really wants to be able to do it already. She concentrates and puts together all of her learning and all of her practicing at once. It's hard and she almost gives up, but then she can finally feel her body change like it's supposed to, and Loki is certain that it will look like it was easy to Thor once he notices. Mostly Loki shrinks a little bit, and she feels somehow lighter. There might be more differences than that, but she would have to look in a mirror to see and that will have to wait. Instead, she watches Thor's eyes as he realizes what she did.

"You can't," she says. "I still can."

It takes several long moments of Thor finding ways to assure himself that Loki's body really is the way it appears now, and of her repeating that she can still become a Valkyrie when she grows up if she wants and Thor has to be a normal warrior, but eventually Thor exits their room just as noisily as he came in. He's crying, though that part is quiet, and after he slams their door behind him he threatens that he's going to tell.

Loki giggles, and then changes back into a boy, body and all. He's very proud of himself for finally managing it, but he thinks he'll keep it all to himself for a little while.

He probably can't get in trouble for something nobody but Thor knows he can do.


End file.
